Day 4951

Janet returned home this evening and Dawn is beyond happy. I think a week alone with me is about her limit. For the most part she's been very good, but this morning I was worried enough about her that I almost took her to the vet. She seemed very agitated and tore up her dog bed in the kitchen. Then she tried to hide in all the wrong places, like inside closets and behind the television. I took her outside and she was panting heavily. I don't know whether she had a mild seizure or was just having a panic attack. At any rate after about fifteen minutes she was completely back to normal and there were no problems for the rest of the day. It will be nice to finally go on a walk with her again tomorrow. She has refused to take a walk all week.

The last time Janet went on vacation Dawn seemed to relax as the week wore on. This time she seemed to become a little more stressed with each passing day. She is a very fearful dog and it doesn't take much to get her shivering and shaking. I think today she might have just given up hope that Janet was ever returning and thought she might be stuck with me forever. All is well now though. I hope she remembers that these vacations don't last forever the next time Janet goes someplace. 

Once I was convinced that Dawn was fine I went to the gym. Walking around the indoor track is the only way I'm going to get my steps this summer. It's way too hot to go walking in the park. When I took Dawn out to pee this morning it was already 90 degrees. It didn't take long for the temperature to climb over 100. I didn't stay long at the gym today. I was still a little worried about Dawn and came home as soon as I finished my three miles around the indoor track. I picked up a few groceries on the way home but I'll probably have to go to the store again tomorrow. 

My call to tech support yesterday accomplished nothing. I'm still getting the spoofed e-mail spam that appears to come from me. The person I talked with yesterday sounded pretty convincing and I actually thought the problem was solved. I should have known better. These guys have never really helped me before. Why should they start now. 

I hope Janet has some ideas about how to get rid of the pile of stuff in the living room that used to reside in the utility room. I have no idea where to put these things now that we no longer have a shelf. Our closets are full and the storage warehouse is getting pretty full as well. Some of the things could be thrown away, but at least half the stuff are things we use all the time. All these problems could have been avoided if the building inspector didn't have to inspect new water heaters. The way the shelf in the utility room was attached before worked well for over fifty years. It's a shame that the rules had to change at a time when I've lost all patience with bureaucracies. Getting a new drivers license was a pain. So was getting approved for TSA Pre. I never dreamed that getting a water heater would be a hassle too.

I guess I'm just getting old and grumpy. Dawn and I should get along great because she's old and grumpy as well. Neither of us like dealing with change. All in all, I think we did pretty well this week. We're both glad Janet is back though. It takes a team to keep this house running.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4950

A plumber came by this morning to add a circular flashing around the hole where the vent from the water heater went through the ceiling. He said this would be necessary when the building inspector arrived later in the day. About two hours later the inspector arrived, spent about a minute looking at the installation with a flashlight, and said everything was up to code. He handed me a little receipt saying that everything was OK and told me to keep it in a safe place. It was unclear why all this was necessary until the inspector told me what he sees sometimes. "You wouldn't believe it," he told me. "I found a guy two weeks ago storing gasoline for his lawn mower right next to the gas water heater." I thanked the guy for coming out and kind of wished he would inspect my new roof too.

This week has gone quickly. I follow a list every day to make sure I don't forget anything with Dawn. I think she appreciates it that I do everything in exactly the same order as Janet does. The only real difference in our schedule is that we sleep in later now. I can see no reason to get up early. The day is long enough as it is.

It's still a mystery to me why Dawn won't come out to the kitchen and eat her breakfast. It's really hard to get her off the bed in the morning. She would eagerly follow Janet around in the mornings, but I guess this is different. The only time she acts normal now is when I'm doing something that was always part of her daily routine. When I fix her dinner at 5:15, she runs right out to her bowl in the kitchen and eats normally.   She does the same thing for her bedtime snack. Breakfast is a tough one though. I had to feed her breakfast in bed again this morning and then stay out of sight while she ate.

It was way too hot for a walk in the park this morning, so I went to the gym again after I finished with the building inspector. I like going to the gym around lunchtime because there are fewer people at this time of day and I have a better chance of finding a parking place in the covered parking garage. My routine has been exactly the same for several weeks now, but that's fine by me. I walked three miles on the indoor track and shot baskets for about fifteen minutes before I headed home again. My pace on the track was good today. I like seeing progress. My elapsed time on a good day is often four minutes faster than on a bad day.

I always try to get Dawn to eat lunch with me, but so far she just stays in the bedroom. She will go outside and pee though. I guess this seems normal to her, because I'm often the one who takes her outside when Janet is home. It's clear that Dawn doesn't want anything new in her life. She trusts Janet, but when I'm here by myself she reverts to kennel mode. Sadly, I will probably always be a kennel attendant to her.

I called my Internet Service Provider this afternoon and asked if they could help me stop the people who were spoofing my e-mail address. The tech support person I talked to knew exactly what I was talking about. Evidently spoofing is a common way to send spam. Tech support said they made several changes on my mail server that should prevent unauthorized people from spoofing my account. We'll see if this works. With any e-mail changes it can take up to 24 hours before the change propagates through the Internet. Hopefully tomorrow the spoofing deluge will stop.

I still don't know what I'm going to do with all the stuff that used to be on the long shelf in the utility room. Now that the shelf is gone, it's all sitting in a pile on the living room floor. Janet likes to declutter and throw things away, so  hopefully she can make this pile a lot smaller when she returns home. Maybe I'll still think about building a new smaller shelf, but it would be a lot easier to just get rid of most of this stuff.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4949

It's been a long day. Two plumbers have been here all day installing the new water heater. I never dreamed that putting a water heater in a confined space was such a complicated procedure. Due to new code requirements, the plumbers couldn't simply duplicate the old arrangement. New water heaters have to be installed on a raised base with an overflow pan that drains to the floor drain. Too many things use the floor drain in the utility room already. Now I've got one more. 

The plumbers told me that I could no longer use the copper pipes at the top on the water heater to support a shelf. I have no shelf in the utility room now and no place to store the things that were sitting on it. The new water heater is slightly larger than the old one and takes up more space, but the good news is that we have hot water again.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but the price of water heaters has more than doubled since the last time I replaced one. The plumbers were amazed at how old the leaking water heater was. "Your new one won't last that long," the lead plumber told me. I wonder what else can go wrong in this house? Probably more things than I can even imagine.

Dawn is still frightened of almost everything, but she is eating her meals and going outside to pee and poop. That's all I can ask for at this point. She was actually very good today with all the commotion going on in the house. She just stayed in the bedroom all day until the plumbers left. I was a little worried last night that Dawn wasn't coming back to the bedroom to go to sleep. We had a very brief power outage and when the lights and TV went out, it scared her and she ran to the kitchen. Basically everything seems to scare Dawn except plumbers. She seemed fine with the plumbers today.

Since I was home with the plumbers all day, I didn't get to go to the gym. It wasn't a good day to take a long walk since the temperature got up to 104 degrees. I'm hooked on getting my steps though. After dinner I took this week's trash out to the curb and then took a short walk. I walked just long enough to get 10,000 steps and returned home. No sense in being stupid. I thought it would be cooler if I waited until evening to walk. It was still 95 degrees though.

Somebody has spoofed my e-mail address and I'm seeing spam that appears to come from me in my spam folder almost every day. It's irritating. I did a little research and discovered that this type of spoofing is extremely common and very hard to stop. I'll call my hosting company again and ask them to put a stop to this. I did this once before and the spoofing stopped for about two weeks and then started all over again. I'm beginning to think that my Luddite sister who isn't on the Internet at all might have the right idea. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be uneventful. Having plumbers banging around all day in one room with a scared dog in another room was a bit stressful. I'll be glad when Janet returns home.

Watson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day